Majora's Wrath
by Trixie The Great
Summary: Time is running out, Link has to act or let the world die because of his cowardice and his past.


The clock stroke eleven as I stepped onto the stairwell leading to the Grand Clock Tower Chamber. The chiming of the bells began to fade as I slowly ascended; one, two, three, four. Silence, nothing but my own ridiculously loud footsteps. I flinched at every step, fearing that the horrid beast at the top would hear me, kill me before reaching my destination. Despite the fact my presence had become readily known, I continued, ignoring my own stupidity and traveling with a much greater speed. Closer and closer, the large stone door leading to the main chamber was visible over the final landing of the stairs. Deep blue and purple strange, foreign swirls and eyes engraved along the contours of the door.

In the center of the massive door sat a picture of the beast itself. Large, menacing, and horridly ugly. Its face warping into a heart shape, its eyes staring forward and backward and nowhere all at once. Spikes protruding from its smooth body, almost as if the door attempted to prevent me from continuing into the chamber. With some difficulty, I grabbed hold of the strangely sharp door handle and force my way into the Grand Clock Tower Chamber. The door opened with a slow and loud creek, echoing throughout the entire structure. If the monster was still oblivious to my presence, I had just made myself known to even the Great Giants that still rest beyond the flow of time.

The monster rested on an elevated platform in the center of the chamber. With his back turned to me, I heard him chuckle slightly over his deep and raspy breathing. The light blue platform pulsed slightly as the creature stood, forcing himself to his feet and gesturing to the devastation that it had caused in the tower so many years ago. Glass was scattered throughout the chamber, bits and pieces from the dome's ceiling. Piles of bones and armor gave the glass company, rusting and nothing more than dulled daggers after the years of wear caused by this horrible beast's foul enjoyment.

At one point they had contained him, made visible by the destroyed chains lining the wall and the shackles dangling from his wrists. An ultimate plan to destroy Termina, they had brought him closer to his goal. Dragged the beast into the very lair it desired, a tower that stretched high into the sky-past the clouds and within reach of the moon. Here his powers were absolute, nothing could find him, nothing could harm him; nobody would accuse the strange creature of killing off the world. I hated the stupidity of those in the world, even mine, for I could have finished it long ago. All those years ago when we first met, I ran. He should have been dead by now.

The beast once again laughed, turning his horribly large head in my direction, its blank eyes making contact with mine. Red, mysterious and lifeless, so much unlike its body. He remained there, slouched and grasping the strange reed flute in his tiny hands. His face twisted and wriggled as he laughed. Raising his right hand, the creature himself started to float into the air. Like a doll high above me, reaching towards the not so distant moon. Palms extended and head raised, the creature whispered upwards. He slowly rotated as he whispers, and for an instant his back was to me.

I seized the opportunity and drew my blade, ready to charge forward and finish the beast now.

If only he wasn't growing so distant.

In my desperate attempts to slash at the creature, I stumbled over the remains of one of his unfortunate victims, losing my blade in a quickly forming mist. Regaining my composition, I attempted to search for the sword before the monster realizes I have finally made a move. As I searched the chamber a low moan seems to flow through the walls of the tower, ringing in my ears and enveloping me. I covered my ears to avoid the horrid sound and continue my search. However, my search was stopped short by childlike laughter from the beast. His laugh joined the moans and soon focus became nearly impossible, I fell to my knees and crawled along the floor in my final attempt to retrieve my weapon. Unfortunately for me and the rest of the world, the pain that had slowly begun to develop in my head was unbearable and I collapsed.

Writhing in pain I apologized to all of Termina. Tael, Tatl, the town, the lovely couple I had reunited, the little girl on the ranch. Everyone in this world was doomed because I could not step up, couldn't mature enough to end the creature that I had brought into existence. Everything had been my fault. Even my failure.

He came to me through the fog, carrying the very weapon I had attempted to destroy him with. The creature was short and frail, I could see the familiar scrawny limbs of an old friend from another world. His stare was just as distant and menacing, his posture just as crude, and his face still twisting and churning. A strange swirl formed around him, drawing my stare into his eyes, red orbs floating in a vast black space. I could feel myself being dragged in, the pain of my loss spreading from my head and deeper into my body. Striking heart and thoughts, I felt nothing but fear. The laugh grew, the moaning circled, and a new sound arose from beneath.

The tune the old bard down in Southern Clock-town once played forced its way in. The tune joined with the beast's cries and the moans, growing louder and louder and faster and faster, an infinite loop increasing in speed. The bard's flute increased in pitch, becoming nothing more than a painful whistle, screeching past my now ear shielding hands and into my head. Disoriented and unable to move, I begin to slip from the waking world.

Still keeping my grip on reality, I could hear the first chime of midnight. It as if the quaking of the building lasts forever, the bell joining with the music, however much slower. I used the bell to bring myself back into focus, however everything remained painful and dizzying.

Somehow over the laughing and music, I heard him whisper to me. From in front, behind, to my left and right, the voice; everywhere. No source, just a brain rattling pain etching words into my mind. I felt his words taking their toll, scratching and warping. The room around me melting and shifting. Swirling and sinking. The chamber shifting with his voice, forcing a tower to become nothing more than an indistinguishable mess of destroyed glass and gray liquids. His words bubbled from the foul liquid. I heard his voice quaking through, shaking the grainy remains of the glass, bringing down the walls of the chamber.

"Time's up."

The second bell rang and I gripped a partially destroyed skull, somewhat intact and unaffected by the chaos of the chamber, fully tangible and still. It did not move even when the voice reached out for me from the depths of the hollow brain casing. Finding it in some strange way humorous, I let out an absurdly loud chuckle. Avoiding another terrifying eye lock with the beast, I kept my eyes trained on the skull, tuning out the screeching of the surrounding songs and screams.

The third bell chimed.

Before the third bell finished, the skull was rocketing towards the beast, crashing against the creature and forcing it onto its back. I quickly dash forward and claim my blade from his claws.

The fourth bell echoed through the chamber.

I fumble with the sword as his fist came in contact with my face, sending me sprawling onto my back. Taking hold of his opportunity, the creature stood above me, attempting to make eye contact. Before the fifth bell began the monster fell backwards, clutching his newly bloodied eye as I rolled towards a nearly blunt dagger. For a brief moment his face is in my line of sight. His empty, lifeless eyes, dripping a horrid black liquid from the chasm of darkness.

Yet his body itself seemed so weak and innocent.

The fifth and sixth chime were spent vomiting.

Gathering all my courage and strength, I charged at the monster, raising the dagger high above my head and grasping hold of the boy's tattered straw shirt. Bringing the dagger downwards into his empty eye, I screamed as loud as possible, exerting my adrenaline at its fullest. A powerful tremor spread through the room from him, more of the chamber collapsed, the debris circling us along with the shrill song, stabbing into my arm attempted to get me to draw it back. I pressed on, never flinching from the throbbing pain of glass and bruises from the attack.

By the eighth chime his shriek joined my screams, mixing with the surrounding music. His hands desperately grasped at my arm to pull the knife away, however my strength was superior and the knife held. I pressed the dagger deeper into his face and followed through to the ground. I watched his tiny body squirm beneath my weight as his screams continued. The sounds began to fade along with the boy's movement, and soon all was still.

After the ninth chime I fell backwards letting out a sigh of relief, the mist had faded and the chamber was exactly how it had been when I first entered, perhaps a few objects were a little misplaced. Nevertheless, the room was not melted and the moon was no longer looming over Clock Town. The first firework of the festival was launched at the end of the ninth chime.

Tenth chime.

It was now that I realized that the mask had been ripped in half, nothing more than shreds of fabric lying about the chamber's floor. Blood pooled around the mask's heart-like shape, spikes falling and the mask itself wrinkling into a small black and red ball.

Before I fully grasped the situation, I noticedI had been mourning the death of the mask over my friend. At first I didn't accept it, he was my friend, my only friend in the world. But the mask was powerful and it had consumed me. I wanted it. I wanted to do good, and I wanted to do bad.

I attempted to unleash the power of fairies onto him, smacked him repeatedly, I even pounded on his chest hoping his heart would start. Panicking, I apologized to the boy. I must have said 'I'm sorry' a thousand times, but I knew he was gone. Nothing could bring him back, not even time itself.

I swore at the mask, I hated it, even more though I hated myself. Such a horrible mistake, because I couldn't take a joke. I couldn't stand how he was changing, so much that I killed him.

Why?

I wanted the mask for myself.

Eleventh chime and I was standing at the window of the tower, watching the firework explode, tears streaming down my face, mourning the loss of my friend and his terrible mask. I could hear the mask's raspy voice echoing in my head. Laughing, taunting, blaming me for the boy's death.

The twelfth chime wasn't nearly as loud as the mask's victory shriek as I dove from the destroyed chamber and plummeted towards Clock Town's square.

I was warned that the mask could change a person.

The Hero of Time had become a monster.

I was the real beast.


End file.
